Ecology: A Prerequisite for Malaria Elimination and Eradication

Abstract

The Global Malaria Eradication Program,launched in the middle of the last century, over-promised and under-delivered [1]. Decades of pessimism followed, during which malariologists were afraid to even mention the goal of this program by name [2]. The term eradication was often nervously referred to as ‘‘the E-word’’ by a disillusioned community that had learned from bitter experience that optimistic forecasts [3] had been based on an oversimplified view of transmission ecology [4]. Eradication of malaria remains beyond our grasp today, but is nevertheless firmly back on the global health agenda as a long-term target